Bloom Day - March 2009

Does anyone know what this little weed is?
Edit: Cardamine hirsuta (Early or Hairy Bittercress)

I did take these photos on the 15th. Just didn't get time to post them for the official Bloom Day.

There is not a whole lot happening here, yet. In my yard, some bulbs are pushing up, but only a weed is blooming!


I am happy to see that all the sedums I rooted last year are coming back. The Vera Jameson (at 10 o'clock in the photo) has loads of buds - I need to get that in a bigger pot.


Tulips are coming up in the grass.


And where I left them last year. Might be a Crown Imperial at the bottom.


Random daffodils near the rick path we built last year. If I had been sure I was staying at this house, I would have put in a lot more bulbs along the path. They would work out well with the herbs I will plant later in the season. Lots of basil grew here last year.

My Mom's yard has more going on.

Does anyone know what this purple flower is?
Edit: Unknown cultivar of Iris Cristata (Wood Iris)

Mom has always been more patient with bulbs than I am. One of many clumps of daffodils:


Crocuses and hyacinth:

Winter Aconite:

Happily, the goundhog looks like it has not yet stirred from the burrow. Leaves are still stuffed under her "decorative" boulder, as they have been all winter. Unless, there is a second burrow entrance they are using.

Bloom Day - November 2008

Sedum stonecrop Sieboldii "October Daphne" on it's last legs.

I haven't done Garden Bloom Day in forever. Too distracted by food storage and impending doom, I guess. We went out to dinner with newly-married friends last night. We went to Hong Thanh, a little Vietnamese place downtown, and had bowls of excellent noodle soup, following buy coconut cups for dessert. Then DH and I went to see the new Bond movie. It was like a date night.

Hypericum moseranum 'Tri-color' - St John's Wort did much better
this year, away from the salt of the front sidewalk planter.

A last little rebloom of Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'

Zinnia "Profusion" in orange, self-sown from seeds in the compost.

I slept until 10 this morning, instead of jumping up at the crack of dawn to go to yard sales. I saw some of the garden bloggers posting for Bloom Day (like my Bethlehem buddy and the great flower scans at Ellis Hollow). It was a leisurely morning, so I decided to take the camera outside and try to remember to enjoy my garden!

The wild petunias are still spreading. I never plant these,
and I always thought they were annuals, but they come back every year.

Marigolds still plugging along under the rim of a pan full of spent sedums.

Little bit of potted basil that didn't quite get killed by the frost.

This great snapdragon just doesn't stop. I saw another one in front
of a neighbor's house around the corner -maybe birds sewed it in my yard
from hers. I picked most of these a fews weeks ago to put in a Mason jar
at church, to remember my grandmother for All Soul's Day.

These rose hips need picking.

We went to DD12's last soccer game of the season this afternoon - and halfway through the second half it started pouring down rain. It had already rained last night and half the morning, so the field was sodden and muddy. Now, they couldn't even see across it. Most of the parents ran for the pavilion. I thought, "If my baby is out there, I will stay, too," even though I couldn't see through my glasses. The referee called the game a few minutes later. By then, the rain had soaked my hoodie and run down my back into my pants. It wasn't a terribly cold day, and the rain wasn't really cold, but it's November, and we were all soaked and chilled. I got the car blanket to wrap around DD12 in her thin synthetic uniform. We were miserable by the time we got home, and we all stripped and took warm showers. I wished we had a fireplace. Hot cocoa only goes so far.

A nice patch of lemon balm regrowing after being cut back. I will
have to pick this to dry, along with the second-growth yarrow foliage.

Gaura Lindheimeri "Pink Fountain" at the end of its second year.
I mulch these with dried grass and yard debris, since some people
have trouble overwintering them.

Coreopsis "Creme Brulee" also a the end of Year Two in my yard.
I need to either sheer these back early in the season for lower growth,
or stake them up somehow.

Oops - haven't been out here this week, and the broccoli is blooming.

I better get out here and cut these tomorrow. They were free
starts planted very late, and I didn't think they would make it,
so I am happy for this little crop.

They lost the game, 0-5. We lost all 10 games this season. We have a lot of girls playing for the first time, and we tend to lose the seasoned players to suburban teams when their families move out of the city. But every kid improved their personal game. A character-building year. DD12 found her niche as a forward, after more than 2 years as a mediocre fullback - she can run much faster than any of us realized. We will practice shooting this spring, so she could actually score next season. I enjoy socializing with the other parents. I'm going to invite them to do something over the holidays.

I also got a lot of small cabbages from the free starts - already
picked 2 heads and 6 are left. I think the variety was "Blue Thunder."

Lots of fall clean-up left to do. Dead peony foliage,
blackening Baptisia, shriveling zinnas.

The grass needs a final trim and there are a lot of pots and buckets to store.

The dried yarrow reminds me of mid-summer's heat. I can't wait for it come back.

June Boom Day Photos

This bloom day seems to come just before a lot of things start to bloom. But I do have blooms, at my house and at Mom's. Larkspur, Coreopsis "Creme Brulee", and two Veronica "Alba" that have gotten droopy. There's a shovel hiding behind the larkspur, where I clearing space for some cabbage starts. Here are some marigolds I grew from saved seed, and some Profusion Zinnia in Apricot, just getting started.



The salvia and my few roses are just ending for now. The guara is about to start, and I see buds in the monarda. The Stellas are really going to town. That stake in the photo is for an eggplant slowly coming up next to it. The Evening Primrose on the other side of the Stellas really had a good year, too.


The Lamb's Ear is just starting to bloom, and the Yarrow "Moonshine" is still holding up nicely. The unknown sedum that I have going from a cutting is starting to bloom already - I left the buds on it to see what it might be.


Mom has a lot of the same stuff I do, and her yard is "between blooms" to a large extent. Her Campanula Glomerata "Joan Eliot" and Snow-in-Summer are ending, daisies mostly not started. She does have some nice lilies starting, and some robust rose campion that did not photograph well. I spotted a great mass of Red Hot Pokers down the block from her. When my yard seems dull, I look at what other people have blooming, and plant some of whatever it is, for next year.

May Bloom Day Photos

First day of the first flower (in four years) on the peony we named Dolly. I am joining the many garden bloggers who post "what's blooming" on the 15th of each month. And it also happens to be the day that the peonies and iris first bloomed. DD15 saw it first from her window when she woke up, and ran downstairs into the yard in her pajamas, yelling, "Look out back!"

The peony "Betty" also has two flowers, slightly different than Dolly, with a little white fringe in there. I should try to figure out what these are one day. I don't even know if May 15 is an early, mid-season, or late peony.

This is also opening day for the iris, another plant that was already here when we moved in, and for which I have no ID. I know some people have thousands of iris, and I have just these few, but they are mine and I love the deep solid royalty of the purple.

Just yesterday, it looked like this.

The peas are blooming. Took this snap yesterday, and today they look a little ragged because I put in pear twigs as peas trellis, and made them stand up better.

The salvia looks great, and the yarrow behind it is close to blooming. So much to anticipate.

The sweet little lyre-leafed sage just got flowers a day or two ago, and I hope it casts seeds around under that hosta. I have to clear some of the sedum so it isn't choked. Last year, the hosta provided shade for the sage later in the season.

There is a tiny viola at the edge of the veggie bed, self-seeded, self-empowered.